The recent budget announcement providing freedom for retirees to decide how to allocate their own pension pots was a bold and surprising move. However, a number of issues are clearly opened by this policy…

The coalition has placed a series of new plans on the table with regard to childcare and early years education. Most eye-catching is the new “tax-free childcare” scheme: from September 2015, for every…

The north of England, along with the central belt of Scotland, created the world we live in today. But the fundamental problems the region now faces stem from the very industrial revolution that shaped…

The political stock of Ed Balls has been on the rise recently. His ratings have improved in recent weeks. As part of Ed Miliband’s effort to have a more civilised discussion at Prime Minister’s Questions…

The big energy policy headline in the budget was well trailed. As expected, the level of the UK’s carbon tax on electricity generation will be frozen from 2016/17 until the end of this decade. Conceived…

In the budget that will set the tone for the Conservatives in the run-up to the general election George Osborne needed to establish a narrative of success without removing the need for more of the same…

We are finally starting to see an emergent consistency in creative economy policy in George Osborne’s budget statement. The chancellor’s key innovation was the introduction of tax relief for theatres from…

Much to ponder for Osborne’s favourite voters.
Robert SharpMarch 20, 2014

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, “pulled a rabbit out of the hat” for pensioners and savers with changes to UK pensions that have been hailed as the most significant overhaul to the system…

This man came into school today and kept going on about hard work.
Oli Scarff/PAMarch 20, 2014

George Osborne’s impromptu child-minding of shadow chancellor Ed Balls during pre-budget interviews summed up his task in the last full year before the election as effectively as Wednesday’s budget speech…

As usual the budget is as much about the theatre of the event as it is the economics of what is being announced. The chancellor, George Osborne, was able to make some dramatic pronouncements about pensions…

Innovation policy in the UK has taken on a medieval cast. No sooner do we have Catapult Centres, than there is a call for Arrow Projects. This is the headline recommendation of a report to government by…

If Cameron is the heir to Blair, Osborne is the heir to Brown. His budgets have always been intensely political. The serious fiscal work now goes on in the spending review and the autumn statement. Budgets…

The current vogue for heralding the recovery of the British manufacturing should not lead us to complacency about the very real difficulties currently faced by the sector. George Osborne’s budget offered…

Ed Miliband’s response to George Osborne’s Budget statement got off to a good start with a quip about the chancellor’s announcement, flagged in this morning’s press, that a new £1 coin would be introduced…

Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled his fourth budget. The blueprint for recovery includes wholesale changes to pensions and savings, attempts to boost business investment, new relief for the costs…

There is good news for George Osborne as he approaches his latest budget speech. The Bank of England is predicting the economy will grow by 3.4% per cent this year and the Office of Budget Responsibility…

Recessions always hit young people hard. Firms’ first response to declining orders is to stop hiring new recruits rather than sacking experienced staff. Young people disproportionately rely on new hiring…

The politics of recession and recovery dominate discussions about the British economy. Every new set of figures published or set-piece moment like the budget sparks another debate on whether the UK has…

Britain is home to an increasingly dysfunctional housing market. The risk is that a chancellor trying to lay the foundations for a 2015 election victory will struggle to find the balance between the short…